1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to exclusive use display surface areas, and their applications to persistently visible display of contents, such as advertisements.
2. Background Information
With advances in microprocessor and other related technology, today's computers are equipped with processing capabilities that were once the exclusive domain of large mainframe computers. To exploit these capabilities, today's computers are often equipped with multi-tasking operating systems that allow multiple tasks of the same or different applications to be executed at the same time. These operating systems are also typically equipped with windowing managers to manage the concurrent display of the execution results of the various tasks or applications through windowing, within the constraint of the available display surface of a display device. That is, the execution results of the various tasks/applications are rendered in corresponding display windows (hereinafter, simply windows), and these windows share the display surface. This employment of windows along with the use of iconic representations for various programs and “objects” is also often referred to as the desktop metaphor, with the shared display surface area being referred to as the desktop area.
Whether the contents rendered in the various windows are actually visible to a user depend on the relatively placement of the windows within the available display surface. Except for the top window (such as the “in focus” window or another window “rigged” to be “always on top”) or windows that do not overlap with other windows (such as windows placed in a tile arrangement), contents of the underlying windows disposed in the overlapping portions are considered obstructed, and generally invisible, unless the top and other intermediate windows are considered “transparent”. Contents disposed in the obstructed portions of these underlying windows become visible only when the window manager surfaces the window as the top window, typically responsive to a user request.
Many applications, such as Internet advertising, desire to have at least some of their rendered contents (in the case of Internet advertising, the advertisements themselves) persistently visible to the user. However, “rigging” the browser window to be “always on top” is not necessarily a viable option. Furthermore, in the case of Internet advertisement, even if “rigging” the browser window as “always on top” is a viable option, it still would not fully satisfy its persistent visibility desire. The reason is because most Internet advertisements are rendered in the form of banners, typically disposed at least at the top and at the bottom of a page. The banner advertisement placed at the bottom of a page is typically not visible when the page is first displayed, as the page is typically larger than the browser window. Similarly, the banner advertisement placed at the top of the page becomes invisible as the page is scrolled downward.
Thus, an improved approach to display management that better addresses the persistent visibility requirements of applications, in particular, the persistent visibility requirements of Internet advertising is desired.